The Demizard Tournament
by AlleyKat2134
Summary: The Titan War had ended and the demigod's lives became quiet. A little too quiet. That is, until one day, Chiron announces that they would be participating in a special wizard tournament, the Triwizard tournament. What will happen when wizards and demigods compete against each other? Read to find out. Rated T coz I'm paranoid and there is going to be some very light cussing.
1. Our quiet lives become not so quiet

**Hi! This is my second PJOHP crossover :) The timing in this story is a bit out of whack, so I'm sorry about that, but oh well. It is set after the Titan War but it is still set in the Goblet of Fire for HP. I know that shouldn't be but just saying, Percy is two years older than Harry so it still works out.**

**Oh and I almost forgot, I do not own PJO or HP (much to my disappointment)**

**Enjoy and review:D**

**Chapter 1**

It had been a month since the Titan war, and the demigods of Camp Half-Blood were still celebrating their victory and mourning the ones they had lost.

The whole camp was going about their usual business. People were hacking off dummy heads, cutting each other up or trying out the lava wall. Demigods from the Hephaestus cabin and Athena were busy with the new minor god's cabins and others were just doing whatever they liked, like the Stolls.

Percy and Annabeth strolled past the cabins and headed to the arena when a voice screamed at them.

"Hey, Percy, Annabeth! Annabeth! WAIT UP YOU TWO STUPID LOVEBIRDS!"

That finally caught their attention. They scowled and turned, expecting to see another shallow dimwit from the Aphrodite cabin, but instead found themselves face to face with a panting and slightly pissed daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of Artemis's Hunters, Thalia Grace.

She hadn't changed much, but then again, people who were immortal didn't tend to change. She had grown her black hair out a little. It now hung just past her shoulders. Her eyes were the same: lightning blue with a thick line of eye-liner and mascara around them and she was wearing her standard Death over Barbie T-shirt and silver circlet.

"Thalia! What are you doing here?" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Gee, it's nice to see you too Annabeth," Thalia replied sarcastically.

"No I didn't mean-I meant…ugh. I thought you were out recruiting more Hunters? I didn't expect to see you ages!" Annabeth replied, flustered.

Thalia laughed, "I'm just messing with you. Recruiting is done! A lot of girls joined this month so we thought we would all take a break and come back and visit. You know, see how everything's coming along. It seems pretty good here. Oh, and hey there Percy."

Percy nodded back a hello, pleased to see Thalia. Though their fathers didn't exactly get along swimmingly, they were pretty good friends, unless one of them got angry and took it out on the other. Which was often.

"Oh, and I forgot. Chiron called a meeting in ten minutes so you guys better go get ready. Apparently it's something important. See you guys in ten." And with that, Thalia raced off.

"What do you think the meeting's going to be about?" Percy asked Annabeth.

"I don't know, Seaweed Brain. Why do you think I would know?" She replied, rolling her eyes.

"Because you're Wise Girl. You should know everything." Percy teased and laughed when Annabeth rolled her eyes again and snorted.

* * *

Ten minutes later, all the counsellors were sitting rec room, bored out their minds, which was not a good thing for ADHD kids. Imagine a huge group of hyperactive, impulsive kids stuck in a room together with nothing to do. It was not exactly a pretty picture.

Everyone, even Will Solace, a fairly level headed boy, was bored out of their minds and was trying to find various ways to amuse themselves. Will had taken out an arrow and was throwing it against the wall, aiming as close to Seymour's head without killing it. The others weren't much better.

First, there was Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate. She was rearranging people's faces. Literally. As soon as Percy walked into the room his nose was swapped with Clarisse's and his eyes were swapped with Nico's.

Then there were the Stolls, sons of Hermes, who were busy scribbling random awkward and suggestive notes and taping them to random people's backs. Drew had about fifty on her back saying things like 'I'll make your time worthwhile' and 'If you're looking for flexibility, then I'm your girl' and others of the like, but she hadn't noticed yet. She was too absorbed in her mirror and shrieking everytime Lou gave her an extra eye or mouth.

Butch, son of Iris, was carving rainbows on the already ruined Ping-Pong table and Clovis, son of Hypnos, was sleeping again (as always). Nico was being his usual self, settling for twirling his Stygian sword skull ring round and round his finger, not noticing that he was now wearing Percy's eyes, and Annabeth was reading another book on architecture. She took her job as Olympus's architect very seriously.

Thankfully, Chiron finally clopped in five minutes late. He took a look at all of us and sighed, before instructing, "Lou Ellen, please change everyone's face back, Travis, Connor, stop writing those inappropriate notes and take them off anyone who has them. Drew, calm down. Your face is back to normal and Will I don't think Mr D would be too happy if you killed that leopard so please put that arrow away. Oh, and someone wake Clovis up, though I doubt he'll be needed in this meeting."

After everyone had done what they had been told and everyone's face was back to normal, Chiron finally began the meeting.

"I have just received a message from an old friend of mine, Albus Dumbledore. He has invited us to a special tournament that will be taking place this year at his school."

This made us all perk up. Though it had been quiet and peaceful since the war, these people were still demigods, so they still were always expecting action in their lives. However, nothing had happened for the past month and their ADHD had been kicking in, BIG TIME.

"What's this tournament about, Chiron? Where are we going? Who's participating? When do we leave?" Annabeth fired at the poor centaur. Percy smiled. That was his Wise Girl, always asking the right questions.

"Please, one at a time Annabeth! I was getting to that part. You see, these people aren't demigods, but they aren't normal mortals either."

He paused for effect. Everyone looked at each other, puzzled. Not demigod, but not totally mortal? What were they then?

"They are wizards."

Complete silence followed Chiron's announcement, before Travis and Connor started cracking up. Soon, the others followed.

"That's a good one Chiron! You really had us going there. Ah, we should try that one next time." Someone gasped through their hysterical giggles.

"I am not joking. Wizards exist. Think, if demigods exist, why can't wizards?" Chiron asked.

That shut everyone up.

"So…you weren't kidding? There really is a school that teaches kids to shoot spells out of sticks and wear pointed hats?" Thalia asked incredulously.

"Yes there is, and as I was saying, Hogwarts," he was interrupted again by another round of giggles, "as I was saying, Hogwarts is holding a tournament, called the Triwizard Tournament. However, this year, it is being called the Demizard Tournament, though no wizards know yet. I, and 10 of you, will go and represent our school. You will be asked to introduce yourselves as demigods and you will enter yourselves in this tournament if you choose to. Whoever is chosen will compete and those who have not been chosen will be the support team."

More silence ensued as the bewildered campers processed what their instructor had just said. It was like they were learning about the gods again. Quite a while passed before Percy asked, "So who's going, where are we going, when are we going and how are we getting there?"

Chiron beamed at him and replied, "You will be going to stay at Hogwarts for the entire year. Hogwarts is in Scotland, I believe. You will be leaving tomorrow, so you will arrive in time for the first day of school, and I have chosen ten counsellors to go. They will be: Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo, Clarisse La Rue, Will Solace, Lou Ellen, Jake Mason and Travis and Connor Stoll. All those who were not mentioned can go and train now." All the dismissed grumbled and moved out, complaining about not going being able to go to 'Pigzits', as they were calling it.

"Chiron you still haven't told us how we were getting there yet." Thalia reminded.

Chiron's expression immediately changed to one of unease. He gulped before saying, "Ah…about that. We'll be getting there by…plane," and winced at the outburst from the Big Three children.

"Chiron! You know Zeus already hates me! He'll kill me if I so much as step foot in the _airport_, let alone a plane!" Percy exclaimed, horrified. Thunder rumbled, as if agreeing with Percy's point. Nico and Percy turned a little paler, if that was possible. Thalia looked like she was going to be sick. No one but Percy knew it, but Thalia was deadly afraid of heights.

"Yes we know, but Zeus has sworn on the River Styx that he will allow you to fly to and from England, but that is all. However, any flying while you are at the school is prohibited and you will struck down for that." Chiron assured them and sent them off the pack, instructing them to meet him at Thalia's pine at six.


	2. We're off to see the wizards!

**I DO NOT AND NEVER WILL OWN PJO OR HP. Now let me go cry in the corner for a while...:'(**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Hey, Percy. Percy, wake up. Percy you need to get up now. PERCY ZEUS IS GOING TO BLAST YOU TO TINY LITTLE PIECES IF YOU DO NOT GET UP THIS INSTANT" A voice screamed over Percy, jolting him back to consciousness with that last threat. He sat up as quick as lightning and reached for Riptide, not even realising that he had just slammed his head very hard against some poor person's nose. The curse of Achilles could do that to you sometimes.

"What? Please no! I haven't done anything wrong! Hello? Oh hey there Nico. What are you doing on the floor? Isn't it a little cold down there?" Percy grumbled groggily, still not fully awakened from his nap. Maintaining his iron-like skin was tiring work. He glanced out the window and saw that it was approximately four in the afternoon.

Nico, on the other hand, was now sporting a large lump on his head and had a massive headache building up behind his eyes. Holy Hera, Percy's head is hard!

"Annabeth...needs to talk…about presentation…Go…arena…now," Nico squeaked out through the pain. _Pull yourself together man! _He thought to himself. He was the son of Hades. He should be able to take pain, even it had been inflicted by a man with iron skin.

"Oh. Ok then. Why didn't you say so to begin with? I'll see ya there." Percy chirped back, back to his hyperactive, perky self. "And you really should get off that floor. You'll catch a cold if you keep lying on freezing cold ground."

And with that, he strode out of his cabin confidently, oblivious to the fact that his cousin was still in intense pain.

_Gee thanks for all the TLC, Percy. You really didn't need to care so much, _Nico thought sullenly, staggering out of the cabin and towards the Apollo cabin to be treated.

* * *

All 10 potential Demizard Tournament contestants had finally gathered in the arena and Annabeth took charge.

"I found my video shield a few minutes ago so I thought we should get started preparing for our presentation. I can view the Hall from this shield and we'll see what we can do." Annabeth explained and marched over to a ray of sunshine shining into the arena. The shield shimmered for a while, before revealing a spacious hall with four table running down the room, though they were slightly squashed together to accommodate space for a round table with 10 seats around it, a bronze brazier in the middle of the table ready to be lit. That circular table was obviously for them.

"Right, so Chiron told me that our table won't be there until the Headmaster conjures it, so we won't have to worry about that. Remember, everyone has to show off some of their skill, but not go too over the top about it. That includes you Nico. Anyone have any ideas?" Annabeth asked. She had thought up couple herself and closed her eyes, running through the advantages and disadvantages of each within a minute.

When she opened her eyes again, she was met with a sea of blank faces, waiting expectantly for her to tell them what to do. She sighed.

"So this is what's going to happen…"

* * *

Percy had to admit, Annabeth's plan was better than what he had come up with. His idea was to charge in and state their status and parentage. Any idea would have been better than his.

Jake was slowly but surely changing the arena into a mini Hogwarts (cue amused snort) Great Hall, so that they could practice their formations. When he was finally done the sun was beginning to set and dinner was about to start.

By silent agreement all ten decided to skip out on dinner in favour of practicing their introduction. In theory, it was a fairly easy-to-understand plan, but putting it into action was another story altogether. Together, the ten, along with Katie, struggled and cursed as they repeated what they were supposed to do again and again until they were perfect.

At last, at around midnight, Annabeth decided to call it a night, sending everyone off to their cabins to pack and sleep.

* * *

Travis and Connor were panicking. It was now 5:47 in the morning. They needed to get packed and they both needed to take a shower. And they ten minutes to do it, max. The whole of the Hermes cabin was watching them sleepily, amused at their half-brother's panicked faces, but making no move to help them.

Finally, Travis snapped in a very un-Travis-like way, "You know, there are more than 15 of you guys here. You could help you know?"

"And why would we do that, dearest brother?" Diane asked, her mischievous eyes twinkling and her upturned eyebrows lifting in a mocking manner.

"Because you shall be bringing great shame to this grand cabin of 11. Now come one, help a little, would you, you lazy butts?" Travis joked, back to his usual self as Connor came out of a record-breaking 1 minute shower. It was now 5:49.

Straight away, the Stoll brothers switched positions in a way only they could manage and their mad dash to reach their deadline continued.

* * *

Chiron rolled up to the tree 5 minutes late, as he was to every meeting, and frowned. Even with his slight lateness there were only 8 campers present. Suddenly Travis and Connor sprinted past him and leaned up against the pine panting. Connor's shirt was inside out and Travis still had not had time to put on his shirt yet and both of the brother's hair was still dripping wet.

Chiron chuckled and shook his head. Those Hermes kids, what was he going to do about them?

He looked over the other campers, making sure they were all fine. Everyone was fine, apart from Percy, Nico, Thalia and Katie, who was only coming because she was needed for the presentation. Chiron had said that she could come along but she couldn't enter her name. Percy seemed to be on the brink of hyperventilating. Annabeth was doing her best to calm him down but there wasn't much improvement. Nico was shaking slightly and Thalia was even paler than usual. Katie, on the other hand, seemed to be very red in the face. Did she have a rash? Or was she just blushing at something, or rather someone?

Percy and Nico's reactions were to be expected. From what he had heard, the last time he had gone flying, the plane ride was anything but smooth and he had all but sworn on the River Styx to never go flying again. Nico had never flown before, but he was clearly terrified by what his cousin had told him about his experiences in flying.

Thalia was another matter. Why she was looking like she was going to be sick if she was going into her father's territory? He had no time to contemplate these things, however, as they needed to get to airport soon. He started talking.

"Alright campers, we need to be leaving soon. Have you all brought your weapons? Remember, monsters can always reach you in England and with so many powerful demigods in the one place, a monster is bound to attack at one point." Celestial bronze, and any other type of godly metal, didn't show up on mortal metal detectors.

There was a chorus of 'Yeah, got it' and 'Don't worry Chiron' before they all climbed into the camp van, driven by Argus.

* * *

Poor Percy. Poor Nico.

Those four words were on everyone's mind as they all boarded the plane. A smiling flight attendant saw the state both Percy and Nico were in, and tried to 'comfort' them, but all she got in return was a snappy 'leave me alone or else' glare from both of them.

Thalia was wincing in pain as both Percy _and _Nico were squeezing her arms as if their lives depended on it. In some sort of way, it did. They hoped Zeus would be less inclined to kill them if his own daughter was in between them.

At every jolt or rumble of thunder they would both squeak and jump and Thalia would grimace again as they tightened their hold on her arms. It had been no less than five minutes since they had taken off and she had already lost all feeling in her arms and the tingling numbness had slowly started moving down her hands.

This would be a very long 7 hour flight.

* * *

As Percy and Nico stumbled off the plane the others all sighed in relief, especially Thalia. They had squeezed her arms to such an extent that Will had to take a look at her arms for bruises and had slapped them around for a good five minutes to regain feeling in them.

"Never again…You can't make me…I will never ever…not even for blue cookies…"Percy was whimpering as he stumbled along like a drunk, gripping onto Annabeth's arm in relief.

Nico suddenly had a thought. He turned to Chiron.

"Chi-err Mr Brunner, we were going to go straight to King's Cross Station after this right?" 'Mr Brunner' nodded.

"Then couldn't Percy and I just have shadow travelled there and waited?"

Everyone was silent before Percy and Thalia let out a loud groan. "Why didn't you think of that earlier, Death Breath? It would have saved my arms a lot of pain!"

"You can shadow travel back to Long Island when this year is over if you like." Chiron replied, embarrassed that he had not thought of the idea in the first place.

They all made their way out and took a cab to King's Cross station. It was 10:30.

"Now what you have to do is run through that wall there." Chiron explained. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.

"You want us to run at a wall?" Clarisse asked, incredulous.

"Yes."

"A solid brick wall."

"Yes."

"A solid, very hard bri-"

"I think you already know the answer to that Ms La Rue."

"Oh…I VOTE PRISSY GOES FIRST." Clarisse announced.

"Oh yeah…wait, WHAT?" Percy exclaimed. He looked at Annabeth and Thalia for support.

"It kind of makes sense, Seaweed Brain. You're invulnerable. If I do it, I'll break my nose." Annabeth reasoned.

"And it would be twice as funny if we watched you crash into a wall." Travis added.

"And that." Connor conceded.

"Great. Thanks for the support guys. You shouldn't have." Percy grumbled.

"No problem!" The brothers chorused.

Everyone backed away as Percy took a deep breath and ran at the wall. Annabeth screwed her eyes shut and squeaked a little expecting to hear the sound of flesh and bone kissing the wall, but it never came. Percy had totally disappeared. They all grinned and ran (or in Chiron's case, rolled) into the wall and out the other side.

* * *

"Hey Ron look at those guys," Harry asked with his eyes on a group of 11 kids supervised by a guy in a wheelchair. _Poor guy, _he thought.

"Yeah what abo-bloody hell. Who are they?" Ron ogled, gaining the attention of his brothers.

"Whoa…" Fred and George murmured. Harry nodded in agreement. These kids were beyond good looking. They were…model-worthy, inhumanely beautiful, god-like. Even the big, buff looking girl with stringy brown hair had a certain air of…he didn't know what it was. All he knew was that he might as well be staring at reincarnated Greek gods **[A/N Which they kind of were…LOL]**. Even the women of the group were staring.

Just at that moment we watched as a boy with raven black hair and sea coloured eyes grumbled something, took a deep breath and ran through the barrier. Soon the others casually followed.

They were going to Hogwarts! How was that possible? None of them had ever seen that certain group of 11, 12 if you counted the supervisor. They would most certainly have remembered them.

Deciding to follow them quickly, they ran through the barrier and all but ran the new students over.

"Whoa! Watch where you're going would you?" A girl with black hair and electric blue eyes shouted.

"S-Sorry! I'm s-so so-rry…" Ron stuttered, gazing at the girl with a dreamy expression, but she just turned away with a disgusted expression. What was her problem?

"Thalia! Be more polite! I'm sorry for my student's rudeness. She was always a little abrupt. I'm Mr Brunner." The man in the wheelchair apologised to Mrs Weasley. She shook her head and replied that it was alright in a heavy British accent.

"You all new? Do you know what house you're in yet?" Charlie asked them, looking particularly at the strong looking girl with stringy hair.

They all stared back at us blankly before turning their heads to Mr Brunner. He informed us that they would be only attending the school for this year for a certain event.

"What event is that?" Fred and George asked together, eyes flashing mischievously.

"Oh, it's nothing, really." _Another _pair of twins answered together. One look at them and everyone knew they were going to be trouble. Their upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles and sharp noses screamed trouble. And they had just met Fred and George. This was not good for anyone. Fred and George grinned.

The whistle went, signalling that it was time to get on board.

"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think," Charlie said, as he hugged his siblings goodbye.

"Why?" Fred asked keenly.

"You'll see", said Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it…it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it', after all."

"Yeah, I sort of wish I was back at Hogwarts this year," Bill said, looking almost wistfully at the Hogwarts train.

"_Why?_" said George impatiently.

"You're going to have an interesting year," said Bill, his eyes twinkling. "I might even get time to come and watch a bit of it…"

"A bit of _what_?" said Ron.

"You mean you guys don't know?" A feminine voice asked behind us. They whipped around to see a blonde girl with cold, calculating grey eyes and a black haired girl with strange blue-violet eyes staring back at us inquisitively.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked rather defensively. She sounded…jealous?

"Sorry. I'm Annabeth, daughter of- anyway this is Lou Ellen." The blonde girl introduced.

"Dibs on the black haired," Fred muttered so quietly that they almost missed it, but said girl turned her head at them and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Alright kids, get on board or you'll miss the train." Mr Weasley commanded, shooing them towards the Hogwarts Express.

They looked back to see the girl called Lou Ellen complaining to Mr Brunner.

"Chiron, do we really need to get on a train to go all the way to a school? They'll be going over the ocean, so you know what that means. Plus we could get there in under a second and the train takes hours. And-"

"Alright, alright, Lou. You can take 4 of them, Nico take 2 and Percy can take me along with the left overs. And don't move from wherever you appear. We'll come find you."

"How come you can get him to do what you want?" A boy who appeared to be younger than the rest muttered under his breath.

"Persistence is the key, dearest di Angelo," Lou replied slyly.

"You put a spell on his didn't you?" the di Angelo guy asked, seeming less shocked and more resigned. Lou Ellen just smiled, grabbed four random people form her group and disappeared. She was soon followed by Nico and Percy.

The Golden Trio and the Weasleys gaped at the spot they had just been standing, not comprehending what they had just seen before the final whistle had them hustling onto the train.

* * *

**Sooo…they finally meet the Golden Trio:) **

**I couldn't find a description for Lou Ellen so I just went by what she looks like in my head. I'll update soon. The demigod's presentation won't be until next chapter so sorry to all those who wanted to know what happens, but I've got it planned out and I've already starting writing it, so you won't have to wait that long:D **

**Enjoy and review please! That would be much appreciated**

**AlleyKat2134**


	3. We pwn the other wizards

**As you** **can probably tell from my past chapters that I am not the greatest at third person writing, so I'm going to try something different. It's sort of like POVs except written in third person. So instead of 'I liked blahdiblah', it would be 'Harry liked blahdiblah.' Comprendo? Probably not but you'll see.**

**Arandomreviewer- I know I said that they were twins but that was because it was in the POV of Harry, who thought they were twins because they were so similar. And with the Percy thing, just go with the flow please:P And I'm changing the timing a little so that the intros happen on the first day. And thanks for the seismokinesis thing. I didn't even know what it was until you mentioned it.**

**And - do I really need to say it again? - I don't own PJO or HP.**

**Chapter 3**

Harry gaped in shock at the now vacated few metres of space in front of them. Had they just…Apparated to Hogwarts? That was impossible…right?

"They can't Apparate to Hogwarts!" Hermione exclaimed, stunned. That confirmed what he had just thought then. But if wizards couldn't Apparate to Hogwarts, how could they?

They weren't wizards.

As soon as he reached this conclusion he quickly turned to Hermione and Ron and explained. Nobody had any clue of what they were. They could have been escapee Death Eaters for all they knew.

The sorting had only just ended when Dumbledore stood from his seat and called for silence.

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

"Mr Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it." The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched.

He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

This announcement earnt many cries of protest. Harry gasped and spluttered while the rest of the Quidditch team just gaped at Dumbledore in shock, unable to talk.

Dumbledore continued on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy-but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

However, he was interrupted when the door behind him burst open a cloaked figure limped in. He pulled back his hood to reveal a grizzly mane of hair, which covered a face full of battle scars. He walked with a slight limp, as it was obvious that he was wearing a fake leg. But the most peculiar and frightening thing of all about this man was his left eye. Unlike his other dark one, this one was a striking lightning blue, though it wasn't even worth comparing to the blue of that girl, Thalia's eyes. It whizzed round and round in its socket, never staying on one thing for long before moving to the next.

Dumbledore and the man conversed for a while before Dumbledore announced brightly in the silence, "May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher? Professor Moody!"

No one but Dumbledore and Hagrid applauded as he limped to his seat. More silence ensued before Dumbledore continued.

"As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing at Mad-Eye Moody with interest and curiosity, "we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year. "

Noise exploded in the Great Hall, but no one could top the volume of the Weasley twin's shouts of 'You're JOKING!'

Dumbledore smiled softly and said, "No, I am not joking, Mr Weasley. Though I did hear a good joke about-" Professor McGonagall cleared her throat to get the announcement back on track.

"Maybe another time, then. As I was saying. The Triwizard Cup. You all may have heard of it many times while growing up or maybe not. The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years and were considered an excellent even for both entertainment and society - that is until the death toll rose above tolerable standards."

"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, horrified.

"However, this year there has been several changes to the rules and regulations. First, all the heads of school and the Ministry of Magic have agreed that only those who are of age - that is seventeen or older - may enter their names into the Triwizard Tournament-"

At this point, the headmaster was interrupted by loud heckling caused by outrage students. He continued on after a while.

"-The Triwizard Tournament. It is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hog-warts champion. I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.

"There has been another change, though this one is more...major to the Tournament, as it adds a whole new level to the competition. This year, the Tournament's name had been changed to the 'Demizard Tournament'. Quite appropriate, in my opinion."

At this, there Hall burst into confused and excited chatter. On one hand, people were excited that this new development had led to a more exciting tournament, but they were also confused. How could a simple name change lead to a whole new level of competition?

"You see, this was another new concept being introduced into the Tournament. This year, not only will Beauxbatons and Durmstrang be joining us, but also ten short-listed warriors from a school in America, Camp Half-Blood."

At the sound of the camp's name, everyone's reactions hit the two different sides of extreme. The Gryffindor, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs scowled, outraged that the camp would differentiate by blood status. The muggle-borns looked extremely offended, whereas the Slytherin house looked disgusted that they would have to deal with more tainted people.

"Settle down please. In their world, Half-Blood is not meant in the way you know it. It does not mean half wizard, half muggle, but rather, something totally different, which I am sure they will tell you for themselves.

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang and the Half-Bloods, along with a few of their short-listed champions, arrived earlier today and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money. Out you go, you can go watch them. Now, please join me in welcoming the lovely ladies of Beauxbatons!"

**[A/N I'm going off the movie from now]**

The doors swung wide open and rows upon rows of gorgeous girls strutted in and down the Hall, stopping every now and then to release a kaleidoscope of magical blue butterflies. A girl, slightly younger than the rest, did cartwheels up the aisle and the headmistress strode it.

She was the largest person Harry had ever seen, except maybe Hagrid. She smiled graciously at the Hogwarts student, who were all staring wide-mouthed at the latest half-giant of Hogwarts.

"Madame Maxime." Dumbledore introduced, taking the lady's hand and giving it a chaste kiss, well as chaste as he could make it with her towering over him.

"Dumbly-dort," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore. And Madame Maxime walked gracefully to the table. The Beauxbaton girls sat down at the Ravenclaws, much to the delight of the Ravenclaw boys. They were looking around the Great Hall with glum expressions on their faces. Three of them were still clutching scarves and shawls around their heads.

"It's not that cold," said Hermione defensively. "Why didn't they bring cloaks?"

"And now, please welcome our friends from the north, the proud boys of Durmstrang!" Dumbledore announced, and a large number of strong boys strode into the hall, carrying poles, which they proceeded to bang against the ground. They then dropped their poles and ran up to the front, showing off their moves as they went. There was a fire-breathing display and then they were finished.

Applause erupted in the hall, and only doubled when two others strode into the room. It was Victor Krum, the world's best seeker, and his headmaster, Igor Karkaroff.

"I don't believe it!" Ron said, in a stunned voice, as the Hogwarts students filed back up the steps behind the party from Durmstrang. "Krum, Harry! Viktor Krum!"

"For heaven's sake, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player," said Hermione.

"Only a Quidditch player?" Ron said, looking at her as though he couldn't believe his ears. "Hermione - he's one of the best Seekers in the world! I had no idea he was still at school!"

As they recrossed the entrance hall with the rest of the Hogwarts students heading for the Great Hall, Harry saw Lee Jordan jumping up and down on the soles of his feet to get a better look at the back of Krum's head. Several sixth-year girls were frantically searching their pockets as they walked -

"Oh I don't believe it, I haven't got a single quill on me -"

"D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?"

"Really," Hermione said loftily as they passed the girls, now squabbling over the lipstick.

"I'm getting his autograph if I can," said Ron. "You haven't got a quill, have you, Harry?"

"Nope, they're upstairs in my bag," said Harry.

A few more minutes of chatter followed, in which the Durmstrangs, and Victor Krum, sat at the Slytherin table. Ron and the Gryffindors looked disgusted while the Slytherins, Malfoy in particular, looked smug and pleased.

Dumbledore calmed the hall once again and announced, "And finally, we have the students from Camp Half-Blood." Finally, the ones the school was most curious in was up to perform.

And then everything was pitched into darkness.

The demigod had all watched the other school's presentation as they suited up, and were not impressed. They just strutted down the hall and flounced around for a few minutes? Come on! That wasn't what they had travelled all this way to see. The Half-Bloods were going to give the wizards something to remember and raise the level of expectation.

"And finally, we have the students from Camp Half-Blood."

That was their cue. Nico waved his hands and the shadows in the room thickened and snuffed out all the candles and fires in the hall. As they all got into position quickly and quietly, screams could be heard from the blue clad girls in the dark. Thalia rolled and muttered 'sissies' under her breath and she moved in front of the green and silver table. They waited a few seconds and began.

Lightning flashed through the roof and outside, followed by a heavy roll of thunder. What had just been a calm and clear night had been turned into a night on the brink of a thunderstorm, courtesy of Thalia. What made the effect even better was the fact that the lightning could be seen from the roof above. Her job was to keep this up for the next few minutes.

Percy, on the other side of the hall, waved his hands in the dark and all the water from the lake came rushing up against the windows, applying more and more pressure until water came leaking through little cracks in the stained glass. Once he had the efficient amount of water, he lifted it all into a sort of watery roof. Katie got busy weaving plants and flowers along the walls until it looked like it was made purely out of plants.

The shadows were removed and the fires relit, to reveal a transformed hall. Everyone gasped, taking in Percy with his arms uplifted, before staring at Thalia with a bronze spear pointed to the heavens, crackling with electricity, to Katie, who had her hands up against the walls.

The doors burst open and, in twos, six more teenagers marched in, fully clad in Greek armour, already fighting. They twirled and sidestepped up with aisle, until they reached the head of the hall and one of them would be pronounced 'dead'. The girls all throughout the hall were all squealing everytime someone came close to a cut and the boys were watching them with sparkling eyes, as if fantasising what it would be like to be in the places of those fighting.

Metal birds flew through the air, resting on people's heads every now and then before taking flight again.

Once all the fighting had finished, a boy, younger than the rest, strode in and pulled out a sword as black as a nightmare, before plunging it into the ground. The ground split and a skeleton pulled itself out with a bony hand, three others following. At the point, everyone was quivering in their seats, paralysed with fear. The four skeletons marched up the hall, the boy leading as if it was most natural thing in the world to have four supposedly dead people following him.

Once the centre had been cleared out, Percy lifted the watery roof and moulded into a statue of Dumbledore, before throwing the water back out the window. Thalia, on the other hand, flashed one last blast of lightning across the sky, writing 'Camp Half-Blood- with the lightning before letting it fade.

"We are the elite ten from Camp Half-Blood, camp of the gods and demigods." All but the plant girl chanted together and a proud man strode, well more like trotted, in. He was a human until the waist, where he morphed into a beautiful white horse. He was a centaur.

There was silence for a while before applause and cheers exploded in the hall. The introduction had been by far the best. Katie snapped her fingers and the plants slinked back into the ground.

"Chiron, my friend! I haven't seen you for years!" Dumbledore exclaimed and walked forward to shake the centaur's hand in the midst of a sea of shocked and awed faces.

* * *

**Soooo that was their presentation! Sorry if it wasn't as good as you expected... :'(**

**Another thing: For som reason my last two chapters may hav changed completely for around half an hour before going back to wat they were supposed to be like. So if they mentioned anything about the demigods arriving in OCTOBER then you read the wrong thing and you may hav to go back and re read if you want. Sorry about that**

**Hope you enjoyed it amd review! Arigatougozaimasu!~ **

**AlleyKat2134**


	4. What happens if you doubt the gods

**I would really like to own PJO or HP or even both, but that is not possible, even in my dreams:(**

**Just a AN, I will be focusing on this story more than my other one, so if you're reading that one, then sorry. i will be updating it but not as often as this one. Sorry. Enjoy the chapter though...hopefully**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"Chiron, my friend! I haven't seen you for years!" Dumbledore exclaimed and walked forward to shake the centaur's hand.

"What…who…how on _earth_ did they do that?" Hermione asked in awe. She had just watched a girl practically control the sky, a boy mould and morph water at his will, a girl grow plants across the wall in a matter of seconds and a boy summon skeletons from the floor…and all without wands.

"They were with people at the station! They were here to compete for the Tri-err Demizard Tournament. _That _was the event they were talking about!" Harry exclaimed as he and Ron, along with the rest of the hall, ogled at the students, taking in their beauty.

"These students have travelled a long way to be here. They are from New York in America. I think that explanations and introductions are in order. If you would." Dumbledore instructed, stepping back respectfully, almost in reverence. Everyone looked to the blonde haired, grey eyed girl.

She sighed and stepped forward. She paused for a second before asking, "Hi, I'm Annabeth. Do all of you know about Greek gods?"

The majority of the hall nodded, whereas the students from the foreign school frowned in confusion.

She sighed once again and launched into an explanation, "So there are twelve Olympians, the gods and goddesses of Greece. First, there are the Big Three gods, the most powerful. They are Zeus, supreme Lord of the gods and Lord of the skies, Poseidon, god of the seas horses, and of earthquakes, and Hades, lord of the dead and king of the Underworld, though he wasn't included in the Olympians until lately. After them, there are the other gods and goddesses.

"There was Hera, goddess of marriage, Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, Apollo, god of the sun, light, medicine, and music, his twin sister Artemis, goddess of the Hunt, wildlife, childbirth and the moon, Ares, god of war, Athena, goddess of wisdom, war strategy, and crafts-" At this Annabeth looked very smug "-Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge, Dionysus, god wine, celebrations and madness, Hermes, Messenger of the gods and god of commerce, travellers and thieves and finally, Demeter, fertility, agriculture, nature, and the seasons."

"And what the hell has this got to do with anything?" Blaise called across the hall, a bored and smug looking Draco sitting next to him.

"A lot, if you let me explain. There was a 'myth' that gods, as well as the minor gods and goddesses like Nike and Nyx, sometimes came down to Earth and had…affairs with mortals. That is you guys," the students from Ravenclaw ad Hermione noticed how they had talked of humans as if they weren't human themselves and spoke in present tense, "Many of the gods and goddesses had children with these mortals. Their children are called demigods. Some examples would be Heracles, Jason and Perseus.

"These 'myths' are all real." She deadpanned with a very serious look on her face.

Silence…and then, "Yeah, right they're real. What proof do you have that Zeus and all those 'gods' and 'demigods' exist?" Blaise yelled back.

Thunder rumbled threateningly across the sky and lightning flashed the roof of the hall, heading straight for the Slytherin table before striking the wall just inches above his head.

"Was that proof enough? Or was our introduction not enough proof already? The fact that you are all sitting here is proof that the gods are real. You have all been blessed with the magic of Hecate." the centaur asked calmly, but a raging storm could be seen in his wise, brown eyes. Blaise stuttered and quivered in his seat, stunned and probably permanently scarred mentally.

"We are all demigods, the children of a Greek god and 'muggles', as you call them. We are, in a way, muggles with divine blood running through our veins. That is what 'Half-Blood' means to us. Half mortal, half god. Oh, and this is our activities director is the Chiron from the myths, the mentor of Heracles, or Hercules as you know his as now," The blonde explained. Many people stared at the centaur in amazement. Those who knew Greek mythology knew that he was at least three thousand years old.

"My godly parent is Athena, goddess of wisdom, battle strategy, the arts, industry, justice and skill," Annabeth continued.

Harry heard Hermione gasp quietly next to him. He rolled his eyes. Typical Hermione, being a big supporter of the goddess of wisdom. The others were stepping forward to introduce themselves.

"Travis and Connor Stoll, sons of Hermes, god of commerce, thieves, travellers and the messenger of the gods. Do these look familiar to anyone?" They chorused, twirling a short, black wand and a small black and green box in between their fingers.

"Hey! That's my wand! Give it back! How did you manage to get that?" Malfoy's voice called across the hall. The hall sat in shock. As far as they had seen, none of the demigods had gone anywhere near the Slytherin table, so how had they managed to nick something straight out of the pockets of a Slytherin? No one really minded that they had stolen from the Snake's table at all, but if they were to do that to any of them…Everyone suddenly felt an urge to feel around in their pockets and vowed to keep a better look out

"What did I tell you boys? Keep the stealing to a minimum!" Chiron reprimanded them. They only grinned back and threw the wand and box back to Malfoy.

"Jake Mason, son of Hephaestus," Jake said before the quiet boy stepped back.

"Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate." So many people's jaws dropped open that it wasn't even funny anymore.

"Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter, but I will not be competing."

"Will Solace, son of Apollo."

"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, god of war. Anyone who wants to challenge me be prepared to be beaten brutally." The Hufflepuffs shuddered and the other houses all looked slightly frightened.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus and the Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. I'm just Thalia. Anyone who calls me otherwise can meet my bolt."

"Percy-Perseus Jackson," Percy grumbled after a stern glare from Annabeth, "but call me Percy. I'm Poseidon's son."

"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades." The slightly younger boy mumbled.

The wizards only fully comprehended their situation then. They were in the presence of the descendants of the gods. Of the descendant of the Big Three, all-powerful gods no less. What were they supposed to do? Bow? Kneel at their feet? Rub their toes? [**A/N LOL PJO reference there:P]**

"One more thing," Chiron added, "These children are exceedingly powerful people, and with so many in the one place, their scent will be very strong. This may call monsters to your school. Your headmasters are already aware of the dangers and have accepted it, but we must beg that if you happen across one of these monsters _do not attempt to fight it_. They are invincible to everything but our weapons. If you see one, run away as fast as you can and find one of these then students, or myself."

An awkward and tense silence passed. They were going to be targeted by monsters. _Greek mythical _monsters. Dumbledore waved his wand and a round table appeared in the centre of the hall, a burning brazier of green fire set in the middle. That broke the ice a little. The demigods smiled and moved towards the table as if they knew it was going to be there. Harry noticed how Percy seemed to be looked up to the most, though for what reason he was not sure. They all followed him to the table not unlike the way Harry always led Ron and Hermione to their seats.

Food appeared on the tables and everyone dug in, still discussing the demigods. Ravenclaws were discussing how they would alter the odds of winning in this year's Tournament. Gryffindors were talking about what they must have achieved to be the elite of the entire camp. Hufflepuffs were wondering why Katie wasn't allowed to compete and the Slytherins were sulking over the fact that their blood was more 'special' than theirs, thought theirs hadn't been particularly special to begin with. The visiting school were all just staring at the eleven, the Beauxbatons swooning over the muscly male demigods and the Durmstrangs admiring the lean females. Perverts, the lot of them.

As the food appeared, everyone piled food onto their plates. It was astonishing how much they loaded on. They each had a mini mountain of food on their plates, especially Thalia, but they soon understood why. One by one the demigods were scraping large portions of their food into the green fire and mumbled something. As each one of them poured the food into the fire a different smell rose up from the fire. When Percy had burnt his food the air was filled with the smell of the sea and the salty breeze. However when Katie scraped her food in it started to smell like…cereal?

Ron looked like he was watching someone being murdered brutally with a butter knife. Burning food was like a punishable crime to him.

Once the food had been eaten Dumbledore stood for one last notice. "To all our visitors, you will be staying with the house you are sitting with, so the Ravenclaws will be sharing rooms with Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs with the Slytherins. Extra beds have already been added. You will also need to continue your education while with us, so you will have the same timetable as those you are rooming with.

"As for the demigods, I assumed you would like to share a room with Gryffindor, so I have added an extra dormitory in there. You will not have to attend classes unless you wish to and I have arranged the area by the lake as the area in which you shall all train. Of course, please do not intentionally maim or kill, as Chiron has informed me that you particularly enjoy doing. All those who would like to watch them may watch in their spare time, but please be sure to stay well away from them. I believe you will want to begin training tomorrow morning before breakfast. Now, you all must be tired. Off you to bed, chop, chop."

And with that, the daily stampede began. Everyone bustled to get to their dorms and get a good night's rest. The majority of the school was already planning to wake early to watch their training. What was their training? They obviously didn't use wands, so what were their weapons?

The Prefects led the demigods to the Gryffindor common room. All the while, Annabeth was rambling on and on about the architecture of the castle and wondering whether she should use some ideas from this castle in the Olympus blueprints. Of course, no one was really listening or could understand her but they all nodded along anyway.

All of them but Lou Ellen were amazed that what they had first thought were mini televisions along the wall were actually moving paintings. The portraits yelled out messages of good luck and welcome as they walked by, intrigued by the new world they had all (with the exception of Lou Ellen) had stepped into.

Once they had reached the portrait of a fat lady dressed in pink, the prefect stopped and said 'Balderbash,' to which the portrait swung open to reveal the entrance to a warm and cosy common room decorated with red and gold.

As soon as they appeared, everyone stopped talking. The prefect had left after he had explained about their dormitories and for a while there was complete silence in the common room. There seemed to be a lot of shocked-into-silence moments going on so far…hopefully that would change as the year went on.

"You can talk, you know. We won't bite, well Clarisse might but I won't." Percy said into the silence, effectively breaking the ice.

"Hey. Shut up punk. You wanna have a go?" Clarisse threatened.

"Yeah right. I'd like to see you try. You can't beat me."

"Oh yeah? That right? We'll see. Duel tomorrow morning, 6:30."

"Yeah, why not? Fight til the 'death'. Be prepared to go down La Rue."

"We'll see, PRISSY. We'll see." Clarisse shot back. The demigods were watching them, amused, as if this happened every other day, which it kind of did. The wizards were looking frightened but excited. They got to watch the first duel, but they were both fighting to death. None of them knew that 'fight to the death' to the demigods was just when one of the adversaries were pronounced dead.

"Oh, and Clarisse? Do you remember where Dumbledore set out our training ground?" Percy asked looking smug. Clarisse thought for a second and then shouted out, using some very colourful language in the process.

"By the lake."

"That's right. And add to fact that you don't know where his Heel is, who do you think would be at an advantage here?" Annabeth asked smugly, always the logical one. Percy smirked and walked up to his dormitory for a good night's sleep, leaving everyone but the demigods in confusion. His heel? His heel was obviously on his foot. Why wouldn't Clarisse know where a heel was? His Achilles curse was making him very, very tired. He fell asleep as soon as he hit the pillow.

* * *

The air was nice and crisp the next morning, perfect for training. The majority of Gryffindor had woken up at 5:30 that morning, even Ron, much to everyone's surprise. They all put on their uniforms and donned extra coats and scarves, but the half-bloods strode out confidently wearing only shorts and T-shirts with 'Camp Half-Blood' written across it.

As they got to the lake they were joined by many others from other houses who had bothered to get up. They may not be bothered to get up the next day of the day after that, but they wouldn't miss the first day for anything.

As soon as they reached the lake, Percy let out an excited yell of and leapt right in, fully clothed. The spectators waited and waited for Percy to come out but a minute became five minutes and then went onto fifteen minutes and he still had not resurfaced. Everyone was getting worried and looked to the half-bloods, expecting them to be peering into the water with concern like everyone else was, but they hadn't even spared the Black Lake a glance and continued stretching, as if it didn't matter to them that their friend had stayed below water for longer than humanely possible.

As soon as the others had finished stretching, Percy finally leapt out of the water. A collective sigh of relief went through the whole crowd, which was then followed by cries of disbelief. Percy had shot out of the water and landed on his feet completely dry. He had spent half an hour under the water and had climbed out without a droplet of water on him.

Percy looked over to the spectators, surprised by how many people had turned up. Were they really that interesting? He laughed at the astonished expressions before exclaiming, "Son of the sea god, remember?"

That just left everyone feeling incredibly stupid.

The real training finally started.

Everyone watched, amazed and a little intimidated as Nico formed deadly sharp spears out of shadows and plunged them into trees and earth and made skeletons rise from the ground. They watched as Travis, Connor and Katie battled it out, Katie almost choking Travis to death with her vines when he frustrated her with his thievery. They watched wide-eyed as Will and Thalia challenged each other to a game of accuracy and then proceeded to shoot arrow after arrow at their target, hitting the bullseye every time and splitting their previous arrows several times. Jake was sitting by himself, forging different objects with just one lump of metal. He made a metal birdbath, then a metal shoe, then a baseball bat all in less than five minutes. Annabeth was practicing swings with a dagger. Clarisse was practicing hand-to-hand combat with Percy before their duel.

Lou Ellen was standing by herself in the centre of all this with a wide space around her, arms spread open, eyes closed, muttering under her breath. The Ravenclaws and Hermione were watching her with reverence as she started. She first conjured a faintly purple force field around her. It wasn't wizarding magic. No shield like it had ever been conjured before. She then made numerous birds appear out of nowhere. She multiplied and enlarged them in preparation for the real skill she was going to practice. Once a hundred or so eagle sized canaries were in place, she clapped her hands and her eyes flew open. Fire lashed out of her clasped hands and reared up, forming a phoenix, a basilisk and a dragon made completely of fire. Fiendfyre. She was practicing Fiendfyre, a dark magic which even Voldemort himself could not completely control. Yet she was using it perfectly. She commanded all three fire creatures with finesse and within seconds her birds had all been burnt to a crisp. She had done all this wandless.

Now that the demigods had put their skills on show, they seemed so much more frightening and intimidating. Only now did the wizards understand what Dumbledore had meant when he said these people were going to bring the tournament to a 'whole new level to the competition'.

* * *

6:30 rolled around and finally, the much anticipated duel between the daughter of Ares and the son of Poseidon started. Clarisse and Percy both went about arming themselves in Greek armour. With the armour on they only looked more threatening.

However, whatever they had expected, they had not expected Percy to pull out a pen and Clarisse to throw her shield aside. Percy took one look at it and then also threw his watch next to the shield. Clarisse was carrying a spear, but Percy was still holding a pen. _How was going to defend himself with a pen? _Everyone thought, until he uncapped it.

As he uncapped it, it grew into a glinting bronze sword. Annabeth counted down and yelled 'Begin', and they were off.

They parried and swung at each other with such skill and viciousness that it actually looked like there were trying to kill each other. After a while, Clarisse had several scratches on her arms and a cut on her left cheek. Percy, however, did not have a single mark on body. He had attacked with abandon, but he had only made a few moves to defend himself, first his arm, then his legs. Everytime he went to defend, Clarisse seemed to spurred on by an idea and continually attacked the area until he blocked a blow somewhere else. His clothes were in tatters, showing off a large amount of chest, but it was unmarked in any form.

"Ha! You are so losing Clarisse! You can't even cut him! You don't know where his Heel is." Travis taunted from the sidelines, his brother laughing along with him. This only made Clarisse stab harder.

"He can't get cut! Why isn't he getting cut?" Hermione whispered frantically to Harry and Ron, wincing when Percy added another cut to the collection on Clarisse's arms. She thought. He kept mentioning his heel, so it had to have some significance. She thought back on her studies on Greek mythology and looked for any reference to a heel.

It hit her like a tonne of bricks. The curse of Achilles! Percy had the curse of Achilles! He had been referring to his Achilles Heel. She told Harry and Ron and received looks of amazement and jealousy.

"It would be great if I had that curse…"Harry mumbled, obviously thinking about Voldemort.

In her space-out, Hermione had missed a lot of the fight. When she looked back she saw Percy riding a crest of waves, dodging with ease Clarisse became increasingly frustrated. He was _playing _with her. With water so close to him, he didn't even need to try. He was in his element.

Percy decided to put an end to the fight, as 7 was nearing, so he pushed off the waves and somersaulted over Clarisse's head. He landed just behind her, grabbed her hair and wrenched it back, putting Riptide against her throat.

"Dead," he announced.

Cheering filled the area as Clarisse flung Percy's sword away and grumbled. He saw many people exchanging coins behind their backs. How amusing…they had actually bothered to bet about a bit of training.

Many people called for the nurse, but she wasn't needed. Clarisse took a small baggie of ambrosia and a canteen of nectar, nibbling from the small cake and taking one gulp out of the bottle. All her cuts and bruises healed over, leaving smooth skin in their places.

"Whoa…can I have some of that? I could-" Ron started, reaching for the bottle of nectar, but was interrupted.

"NO WAY IN HADES! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT!" All eleven shouted back at him, looking afraid and apprehensive. Ron jumped back, startled.

"Geez, sorry. I was just asking…"He grumbled.

"We're sorry, but no one is allowed to eat or drink any of these. They are the food of the gods, ambrosia and nectar, and if a mortal were to consume it, they would literally burst into flames and burn to ashes. Even we have to be careful with it or we will combust." Katie explained in a slightly more controlled voice. Ron immediately forgave them, grateful that they had just basically saved his life.

The whole school strode back inside for breakfast, chatting and talking about what they had just witnessed. The ones who had wanted to participate didn't look so confident anymore.

* * *

**Sorry for the crappy chapter but it was just a filler, really...its kinda depressing that my longest chapter so far was a bad filler:( Oh well...**

**Please review. I'm not exactly confident in this chapter so some useful criticism would be very helpful. Thanks in advance:)**

**AlleyKat2134**


	5. Seven champions? WTF happened?

**Chapter 5**

"You'd think people would be more interested in a physical tournament like this. So far we're the only ones who have entered our names…" Percy mused at lunch later in the week. They had all entered their names in as soon as Dumbledore had 'introduced' the impartial judge. They had tried to think of the Goblet of Fire as a very big, immobile person who just ate the pieces of paper handed to it, but it hadn't helped at all. If anything, it made the whole thing even weirder. How was a cup meant to know who was best to compete?

"Yeah that's coz they're so puny and scrawny that they don't have the strength to enter. They're even worse than you were, Prissy," Clarisse grunted.

Looking around them, the demigods noticed that the wizards were rather skinny…but they fought with sticks and not swords; what was to be expected?

Lou had somehow convinced them all to at least take one day's worth of lessons before they went to train. They had eventually agreed and were waiting for the breakfast to end. They had had Transfiguration in the morning and were waiting to start double Defence Against the Dark Arts after lunch. They hadn't participated in the Transfiguration lesson (with Lou Ellen being the exception; she may have participated a little too much. In short, Hermione became very annoyed at her for stealing her thunder), and had found the day rather boring. As amusing as it was to see Neville accidentally switch his ears with cacti, there was a limit to how long ten ADHD kids could stay still for.

"What do you think Defence Against the Dark Arts is going to be like?" Annabeth asked no one in particular.

"A menace, that's what it's going to be like. I practically am the Dark Arts." Nico grumbled into his food.

"Apparently the Professor is either a genius or a madman. He was an ex-Auror, you know." Lou said impressed. No one at the table knew what an Auror was, but they nodded anyway.

After lunch, the eleven demigods strolled to their class and saw everyone eagerly awaiting their class. Apparently, Moody had been a bit of a hit amongst the students and everyone had been excited about this lesson ever since the first day of school.

They walked to their seats, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited. The classroom was unusually quiet. It was starting to get on the demigod's nerves. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

Nico groaned internally. Another practical lesson. Great. Now all they got to do was stand around and watch as the wizards got to shoot lights out of wooden sticks.

Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled grey hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivelled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures - you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent, though the Americans just stared at Moody, trying very hard to keep with laughter in. Clarisse snorted every now and then. Hinkypunks? What was with the names? They sounded like kinkypunks. Punks that were kinky. Eww…Clarisse quickly pulled herself from her ADHD world after that one.

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark -"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked like he was going to wet himself, but after a moment Moody smiled - the first time anyone had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. He didn't seem the type. Ron looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago...Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to Dumbledore...One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So - straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

The girl called 'Miss Brown' jumped and blushed, putting the horoscope she was showing her friend away. Apparently, Moody's blue eye could see through solid wood as well as out the back of his head.

"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one...Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody rose heavily and limped towards his draw and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around it, occasionally banging against the glass as if they wanted to get out and kill something. Or someone, more likely. Annabeth was in the classroom, after all. She screamed in absolute terror, drowning out Ron's slight whimper. She spluttered and backed away slowly, before being pulled back and comforted by Percy, still shaking.

"Is there a problem, Miss Chase?" Moody asked.

Percy shot him a 'no shit, Sherlock' glare as Thalia explained the rivalry between Annabeth's mother and Arachne, the mother of spiders.

"They always find me…even if they're a mile away…always…"Annabeth stuttered. The way she was now was the polar opposite of the confident warrior she was in the training fields. Even Ron had started thinking that maybe his fear wasn't as bad as he thought. How bad would it be if every single spider in the world held a grudge against your mother and took it out on you? A lot worse than just waking up with a spider in your bed, that's for sure.

Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone was laughing - everyone except Moody and the demigods. They knew what it was like to be under such strong control, and it was not a laughing matter.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter immediately died away.

"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."

Ron gave an involuntary shudder and Annabeth began to shake even more.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Harry knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will.

"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped and the demigod's hands flew to their weapons, looking around for the threat. Moody looked at the eleven Americans with approval.

"You see that? Learn to follow these American's example. Stay vigilant." Moody growled before he picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back in the jar.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to everyone's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring. Lou had often wondered if he was Katie's half-brother.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"

The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretence, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. Annabeth was tensed up, as if ready to bolt out of the classroom at a moment's notice.

Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Katie was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently –

The demigods looked away in disgust, feeling slightly nauseous. There had been plenty of pain and torture thrown into the war, but that had all been purely physical and external, things like cuts, bruises and other forms of abuse. However, they could see that this torture was entirely internal. It was burning away at the nerve endings and muscles and joints of the body, and there was nothing more mentally or psychologically scarring.

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly."

Harry turned to look at her. She was looking, but not at the spider. Rather, she was looking at Neville, and as Harry followed her gaze he saw that Neville's hands were clenched in front of him, knuckles white, eyes wide and horrified.

Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse...That one was very popular once too.

"Right...anyone know any others?"

Percy looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time; she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.

Avada Kedavra? As in, the funky version of Abracadabra? What sort of spell was that? They leaned forward and watched. However, several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron. Whatever this Abracadabra business was, it was not a laughing matter, apparently.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra...the Killing Curse."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

Moody raised his wand, and Nico felt a sudden thrill of foreboding and began to hear a familiar rushing sound, the sound of when a soul was being sucked away into the land of the dead.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

The pressure around Nico intensified and he yelled pressing his hands against his ears as they popped. The spider keeled over in a blinding flash of green, unmarked but unmistakably dead. Many people cried out in shock and all eyes swivelled to Nico, whose hands were still held against his ears as the pressure gradually decreased.

His thoughts went along the lines of, _How in Hades had the wizard managed to devise a spell that could call Thanatos to someone? Curse Thanatos and his stupid loopholes. The Elixir from a few years ago had already been bad enough._ And he continued to curse Thanatos and his stupidity, knowing there would be a price to pay but not really caring.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes (both of them) looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too. Harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all...

Annabeth and Nico both figured that Harry was the one Moody had been referring to. It gave Annabeth something to research about and it explained to Nico why Harry seemed to have a slight aura of death around him, even though he was very much alive.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it - you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it.

"Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and received the same reactions as the first time he had yelled.

"Now...those three curses - Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus - are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills...copy this down..." Which of course, the demigods did not do, partly because they were all off in their own little worlds and also partly because they couldn't read a single thing that was being scribbled on the board.

They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang - but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices - "Did you see it twitch?" "- and when he killed it - just like that!"

The Americans found the wizards' fascination in the subject rather disgusting. Who would want to see anything, even a spider, die after being controlled and tortured? Speaking of which…

All eleven of them had seen Neville's face when he was watching the torture. Their ADHD made sure of that. He had a look of utmost horror on his face, as if…as if he had seen someone or knew someone who had been the victim of the torture curse.

They spotted said boy and made their way over to him. Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse. Before they could reach him, however, Harry, Ron and Hermione walked up behind him and comforted him a little, before he was called away by Moody.

* * *

They headed back to the Gryffindor common room and settled down beside the fire, each person stuck in their own thoughts. Moments later, the heard the famous three walk in and, groaning, take out their Divination homework. It was amusing, listening to the predictions they made.

They chuckled quietly to themselves as they listened to the best friends make ridiculous predictions about losing fights and bets and burning themselves. Though, the prediction about losing something was partially correct. If they were to lose something, it would most likely be because of Mercury, as he was the Roman counterpart of Hermes, god of thieves, not that they knew.

They just needed to lose something to make the statement correct.

Hermione had come up to the two 'master Diviners' after they finished and started talking about spew, though why she would want to discuss spew was rather strange. What was there to talk about anyway? _What colour was it? Was it chunky?_ And even if they asked questions like that, what would the answer be like? It would…

And the demigods fell into the cursed world of ADHD once again.

* * *

The next day seemed to be the day that everyone finally steeled their courage and entered their names. It was also the day that the goblet would make its choice on the champions.

A sneering, ugly boy dressed in green and silver walked forth and threw his name in the cup, smirking triumphantly before leering at Thalia, who turned away, shuddering in disgust.

Next was another boy from the yellow and black house, Hufflepuff. He was distinctly more handsome. He threw his name into the cup and then leapt back into the arms of his cheering friends.

"Pretty-boy Diggory," a boy from Gryffindor muttered under his breath in contempt. What was he called? Shane? Shawn? Seamus? Seamus, that was it. "But I wouldn't have thought he'd have wanted to risk his good looks."

Clearly, he was jealous.

"Listen!" said Hermione suddenly.

People were cheering out in the entrance hall. They all swivelled around in their seats and saw Angelina Johnson coming into the Hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way. A tall black girl who played Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Angelina came over to them, sat down, and said, "Well, I've done it! Just put my name in!"

"You're kidding!" said Ron, looking impressed.

"Are you seventeen, then?" asked Harry.

"Course she is, can't see a beard, can you?" said Ron, referring to his brother's failed attempt at entering with an age potion. Travis and Connor had thought it was a genius idea and were disappointed that it hadn't worked. They were still buggering Percy for an introduction to the famous Weasley twins, though Percy didn't really know them personally.

"I had my birthday last week," said Angelina.

"Well, I'm glad someone from Gryffindor's entering," said Hermione. "I really hope you get it, Angelina!"

"Thanks, Hermione," said Angelina, smiling at her.

"Yeah, better you than Pretty-Boy Diggory," said Seamus, causing several Hufflepuffs passing their table to scowl heavily at him. He really needed to get over his jealousy.

* * *

Dinner couldn't come fast enough, but eventually it did. The Durmstrangs were walking up toward the castle from the lake. The famous Viktor Krum was walking side by side with Karkaroff, and the other Durmstrang students were straggling along behind them. Clarisse didn't see what was so special about him though. He was round-shouldered and uncoordinated. He would probably be so off balance in a battle that he would fall over his own duck feet and impale himself on his own sword. Nothing worth admiring.

Ron, however, watched Krum excitedly, but Krum did not look around as he reached the front doors a little ahead of Hermione, Ron, and Harry and proceeded through them.

When they entered the candlelit Great Hall it was almost full. The Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teachers' table. Fred and George - clean-shaven again - seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well.

"Hope it's Angelina," said Fred as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down.

"So do I!" said Hermione breathlessly. "Well, we'll soon know!"

"Who do you reckon from the Americans?"

"Hmmm…Probably Percy. The whole group just seems to gravitate around him, you know? I wonder what he has done to gain such respect."

"He saved the world," a voice interrupted proudly and effectively put an end to the discussion. The five wizards turned to look at Annabeth in disbelief, then at Percy in amazement as he blushed bright red and sank into his seat.

The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. Everyone else in the Hall were all waiting for Dumbledore to finish eating, if the craned necks, impatient expressions, the fidgeting, and the standing up was anything to go by. They just simply wanted the plates to clear, and to hear who had been selected as champions.

Finally, the plates cleared and the food disappeared. The eruption of sound in the Hall was enormous, but was silenced immediately as Dumbledore stepped up to the cup. Anticipation curled in everyone's stomachs. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He raised his wand and made a swishing motion. At once, all the candles in the Hall snuffed out, not unlike when the demigods had first introduced themselves. The Goblet of Fire now shone brighter than anything in the Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting...A few people kept checking their watches...

"Any second," Lee Jordan whispered, two seats away from Harry.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore reached up and caught the piece of parchment floating down from the Goblet. Using the light of the Fire, he read the name on the parchment.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he announced in a clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

A storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall, though no one was surprised. Viktor rose from his seat with the Slytherins and slouched through the door behind the staff table.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"

_Yeah, and so did everyone else, so it's not really something to be proud of,_ Jake thought a little cynically.

The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

Ron and Harry seemed pretty excited by this, yelling something about vela, whatever that was. The beautiful girl stood gracefully and swept through the hall and into the next room.

"Whoa, they're taking it a little hard, aren't they?" Katie muttered under her breath to her friends. They all looked towards the Ravenclaw table where the Beauxbatons were sitting. 'Taking it a little hard'? More like 'devastated to the point of self-harm'. Two of the girls who had not been selected had been reduced to heaps of tears and snot.

"Sissies." Clarisse scoffed.

Silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next...

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"

No one in the whole history of Hogwarts had ever seen the Hufflepuff table so happy. They all screamed, clapped and stamped in delight as the other houses groaned, disappointed that one of their own had not been chosen.

However, the demigods were not paying attention to anything but the blue-white fire in front of them, waiting tensely for it to turn red. Quite a feat for hyperactive children, really. Soon the whole Hall was quiet, waiting in anticipation. This was something the school had been debating about for a while. Some thought Percy, whereas others thought Clarisse or Annabeth. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

The Fire took much longer than the last few times. The Fire would flare red, before flickering back to blue-white and then burn red once again, as if it was struggling with its choice.

A good 5 minutes had passed before the fire finally burned a consistent red. The Fire recoiled several times before, with some difficulty, pushed out a piece of paper.

Or should I say, several pieces of paper.

There were three pieces in total, all strung together along a pitch black metallic rod. When everyone saw this, the foreigners protested in indignation. All eyes were on the demigods, who all rose and walked towards Dumbledore in a daze. Chiron, who had been tending to some business but had shown up just for this day, trotted along behind his students, wanting to see how they would handle the situation. He was already informed of what was going to happen, and disapproved, but there wasn't anything you could say in protest when the ladies who had come up with plan literally held your lifeline in their hands.

Dumbledore was holding the rod by the wooden stub at the end. He handed the rod to Annabeth, as he trusted her intellect over the others' strength.

But as soon as Annabeth touched the smooth black rod she yelped and dropped it. She opened her hand to show off a large cut running along her palm. It had started bleeding heavily.

Will passed her some nectar while Nico examined the rod with apprehension. His suspicions were proved correct when he flipped it over with his bronze dagger.

"Guys, the rod's made from Stygian Iron." He announced. The others swore, because if Stygian Iron had exploded from a cup of Fire, it could only mean one thing: the gods decided to have some fun. Or rather, the Fates decided to have some fun with their lives and the gods were following through with it. For old ladies, the Fates certainly did like drama.

Nico looked back at the rod to see that it was now attached to a grappling hook that had been fashion from Jake's famous lump of metal. Jake held it up against the light and read out the three names, "Thalia, Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo. And…each of them has a number written next to their name- Thalia has the number 1, Percy the number 2 and Nico the number 3."

"Then I guess you three should get to the back room and we will discuss there." All the demigods nodded, still dazed and all eleven of them drifted to the back room.

Dumbledore turned back to his pupils, trying his best to seem upbeat.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called as happily as he could into the frenzied chatter. "Well, we now have our four-err six champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -"

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. The Goblet had turned red once again. He sighed. He knew the gods led long lives, but did they really need to tamper with this? At this time especially?

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. As soon as he read the name, he knew the gods had no part in this malfunction, and that it was the working of a wizard. Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out –

"Harry Potter."

* * *

**Finally the champion selection. Bet you guys were getting really bored in the beginning of the chapter, right? But i wanted to make the chapter longer so i thought i might as well add the bit about the lessons in as well, and it sort of showed some things. Were you guys expecting the three names to come out? haha nice twist huh? **

**I was thinking of puttingClarisse in but then i was like nah...**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and review, because i will love you guys forever if you do. Thanks!:)**

**AlleyKat2134**

**I hate writing the numbers after my pen name**


	6. What eez zis talk about seven champions?

**Disclaimer (which i think i forgot to do in my last chapter): I do not own PJO or HP...which sucks coz if i did i would not hav killed off Snape or Tonks or Lupin or Beckendorf or Silena or anyone else. Not even Castor. Which would have made the stories really boring but oh well...i didnt want any of them to die... :'(**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Thalia stared at Percy, who stared at Nico, who stared at Thalia.

And everyone else stared at them.

"Why are zey all 'ere? Eez it not zat only ze champions are to be in 'ere?" Fleur whispered to Viktor quizzically. She just got a grunt in response.

_How in Zeus's holy pinstriped suit did this happen? Does that mean we'll have to compete against each other? What the Hades is going on? Why can't we ever catch a break? Always the Big Three kids huh? _

Those thoughts and more were running through the demigods' minds, unaware of fact that Dumbledore should have come through the door of the room a long time ago. At last, the door opened, but it was not Dumbledore who walked in. Harry Potter, bewildered and numb, came stumbled through the door.

"What is it?" Fleur Delacour asked. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

Harry looked back at the large group of older people staring back at him. They had thought he had come to deliver a message. Everyone's eyes bored into him, expectant and a little impatient (the demigods).

There was a sound of scurrying feet and all the attention was directed away him for the moment. Ludo Bagman's vast presence entered the room and gripped Harry's arm and dragged him forward.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing Harry's arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen...ladies," he added, approaching the fireside and addressing the others. "May I introduce - incredible though it may seem - the fifth- well actually seventh, I guess- Demizard champion?"

Viktor Krum straightened and his face darkened. Cedric looked nonplussed. They both looked like they couldn't totally process what Bagman had just announced. Percy and the other demigods gazed at Harry sympathetically, which didn't really encourage the fourth year. The demigods did not know what going to happen in the tournament, but they had been told that it was fairly dangerous, and that people had died in this before.

Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"

Krum's thick eyebrows contracted slightly. Cedric was still looking politely bewildered. Fleur frowned. The demigods just looked at each other. Annabeth had deducted that this was a big thing to happen and it threw everything off balance, but why she did not know.

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said contemptuously to Bagman. "'E cannot compete. 'E is too young. And 'ow can zere be seven champions?"

Bagman started mumbling something about age lines and restrictions and all that whatnot. The door cut him off midsentence as it swung open to reveal a tired looking Dumbledore followed closely by Mr Crouch, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Chiron, Professor Karkaroff and Madam Maxime, the latter two looking outraged. Chiron looking worried and maybe…a tiny bit fed up?

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur at once, striding over to her headmistress. "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

Harry felt a little anger stir under his numbness. Little boy? That was bit much. He may be three years younger, but he had no doubt been through more she had.

"And what eez zis talk about seven champions? Zere was only to be four, no?" Fleur continued.

Madame Maxime drew herself to her full height, which was quite tall, and glared down at Dumbledore imperiously.

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr? Two 'Ogwarts champions and three demigod champions?" she asked imperiously. The demigods had to snort at that. Dumbly-dorr?

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Professor Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions and three demigod champions? I do not remember any…special cases mentioned in the rule book – or did I not read it thoroughly enough?"

Chiron snorted. Clearly, he did not like being referred to as a 'special case', but he kept silent, waiting for his turn to speak.

"C'est impossible," protested Madame Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was resting upon Fleur's shoulder. "We are at a disadvantage. It is most injust."

"We were under the impression that the Age Line would keep underage students from entering the tournament. Or we would have all brought a larger selection of students." Karkaroff added in calmly, though his steely smile was still in place and his eyes were cold enough to drop the temperature in the room.

Snape started off the blame game then by blaming Harry, but it was quickly ended by Dumbledore. For the first time, the demigods saw the hated Professor Severus Snape, the Professor who was talked about in the most spiteful of tones by his students. His hair was so greasy, his face so sallow and his teeth so yellow that and Aphrodite kid, especially Drew, would have had a heart attack right there and then.

"And what about the demigods? Why are they all in here?" Cedric asked, more curious about them than Harry.

"First, on the matter of Harry Potter; he should not be allowed to compete. He-" Karkaroff started, totally disregarding Cedric. He was interrupted, however, when Dumbledore began to calmly interrogate Harry.

"Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" he asked calmly.

"No," said Harry. He was very aware of everybody watching him closely. Snape made a soft noise of impatient disbelief in the shadows. The demigods scowled at the greasy haired Professor. Nico knew what the face and the reactions of a liar looked like. Their face would look slightly different and the muscles in the back of their neck would tighten the tiniest bit, and he did not see any of these reactions when Harry responded.

"Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?" said Professor Dumbledore, ignoring Snape.

"No," said Harry vehemently. _Again, another truth_, Nico noted.

"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!" cried Madame Maxime. Snape was now shaking his head, his lip curling. Annabeth scoffed in her corner next to Percy. If he had been lying, Nico would have said so long ago.

"He could not have crossed the Age Line," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "I am sure we are all agreed on that -"

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line," said Madame Maxime, shrugging.

"It is possible, of course," said Dumbledore politely.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake!" said Professor McGonagall angrily. "Really, what nonsense! Harry could not have crossed the line himself, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that he did not persuade an older student to do it for him, I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else!"

She shot a very angry look at Professor Snape.

"Mr Crouch...Mr Bagman," said Karkaroff, his voice had taken up a smarmy quality, "you are our - err - objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"

Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow. He looked slightly eerie, the half-darkness making him look much older, giving him an almost skull-like appearance. He was clearly not a social butterfly, as observed by Thalia. When he spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice.

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front," said Bagman, beaming and turning back to Karkaroff and Madame Maxime, as though the matter was now closed.

"But what of zese…zese _demigods_, as you call zem. What of zem? Surely, all three cannot compete?" Madame Maxime protested, becoming increasingly desperate.

Now it was time for Chiron to speak.

"I have been contacted by the gods. They have said that the three will compete in the tournament, but in a team. Next to your names there was a number, was there not? That number will be the task you will be performing in. Apparently, Poseidon reserved the second Task especially for you, Percy. For what reason, I was not sure of. All he told me was that it would ensure your safety, so you should maybe thank him later."

"But…But we cannot just abandon the rules for mere _gods_, if they even exist! They could be all made-" Karkaroff started.

"If you value your life, you will not finish that sentence. It has been decreed by the gods, and so it shall take place. Technically, there will still be the five allowed contestants in this competition. And besides, we are not wizards. Your rules have no hold over us anyway. Just be grateful that we are going to do it this way and stop arguing." Annabeth snapped in a very un-Annabeth way, but it was still logical. She had made valid points. There still would be five champions and the rules referred specifically to wizards, when they themselves weren't.

There was a long pause in which Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff fumed and griped for an argument, but came up with none. They reverted back to complaining about Potter. Well, tried to, at least.

"But 'Arry Potter-" Maxime started.

"Oh, shut up you overgrown French tart. That's already been solved. Harry was allowed to compete. Move on, geez. Or are both of you so scared and intimidated by just a fourth year? Are your student really that weak?" Clarisse snarled. She was disappointed and tired and wanted to get to bed quickly. She did not want to be sitting in a cramped room arguing over something so pointless.

Fleur and Viktor recoiled and stood taller in indignation. Chiron shot Clarisse a look and her fellow demigods all hissed through their teeth. That was a low blow. Teachers never liked it when their students were called incompetent, and Clarisse knew it. She also knew what it was like to be a student who was insulted or belittled.

"Madame Maxime, I zink I can compete against anuzzer champion if I need to. I am not weak as zey zink I am." Fleur told her headmistress haughtily, face set in a placid smile. She didn't fool anyone, though. Everyone could see the indignation and hurt burning in her eyes. The veela side of her was threatening to make an appearance.

"Yes, I think that ve can take on von extra. It vont be much of a challenge." Viktor added to reassure his headmaster and regain some of his pride.

Harry felt slightly annoyed about being called 'not much of a challenge' but he kept quiet. The problem was about to be resolved and he didn't want to say something to take them all back to square one.

"How this situation arose, we do not know," Dumbledore said, speaking for the first time in a while. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament, and all three demigods will compete in their allocated Tasks. This, therefore, they will do…"

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr-"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it." Dumbledore said innocently. The Americans chuckled. This old man had spunk.

No one spoke for a while, so they continued. Bagman rubbed his hands together in excitement.

"Well, shall we crack on, then?" he said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Now, could all of you demigods-except the three champions of course- leave the room? Barty, want to do the honours?"

Everyone bade the chosen three good luck and trudged back to the common room.

Mr Crouch seemed to have been pulled from a long train of thought. He blinked before he said to the champions in his curt voice, "The first task is designed to test your daring," he told the champions , "so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a w- in everyone...very important...

"The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges.

"The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands…or their weapon of choice. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

Nico could tell that this Crouch person had repeated this process so many times that he kept slipping up at a part concerning wizards, finding it hard to adjust to adding demigods into his speech.

Percy, on the other hand, was feeling quite optimistic. "So it's a test of bravery. You should do pretty well, Pinecone Face," he whispered to Thalia.

Thalia smiled at that, but inside she was feeling slightly nervous, not that she would ever admit it.

The other champions, in the meantime, had all started walking to their respective lodgings. Fleur was chatting to her Madame in very fast French and Karkaroff and Krum had strode off together in silence.

"I suggest you go up to bed, you five," said Dumbledore, smiling at both of them. "I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

They all tiredly shuffled out. The Great Hall was deserted as the five trudged up to their houses.

"So," Cedric said through the awkward silence, "I guess we'll all be competing against each other. No bad feelings thought."

"Yeah I s'pose." Was Harry's eloquent reply. Thalia didn't bother with a reply. What was the point?

"So...tell me..." said Cedric, turning to Harry as they all reached the entrance hall, which was now lit only by torches in the absence of the Goblet of Fire. "How did you get your name in?"

"I didn't," Harry said, almost desperately, "I didn't put it in. I was telling the truth."

"Ah…okay…"was Cedric's reply, though he clearly did not believe him.

"He's telling the truth, you know. You should believe a little more." Nico cut in.

"Right…okay then. Goodnight guys." Cedric rushed off in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room. His tone of voice said that he still wasn't convinced.

They continued to walk for a while before Harry asked, "You guys believe me? You really think that I didn't put my name in the cup?"

"Yeah, course we do. Nico is normally a good judge on these things, so we learn to just believe him. And then there's the fact that Clarisse was watching the cup like a hawk ever since you could enter your name. She thinks magic is unreliable and weapons and physical fighting is better and she wanted to prove it to Lou Ellen. They had this bet going on that the cup would somehow stuff up before the selection day. If she had seen you putting your name in then she would have cussed you out for it. And possibly cut your head off for cheating." Percy explained as they travelled up the annoying moving staircases.

Harry was relieved beyond belief. If these strangers had believed him then his closest friends would also believe him. For the rest of the walk he was silent, absorbed in his own thoughts.

Was anyone except Ron and Hermione going to believe him, or would they all think he'd put himself in for the tournament? Yet how could anyone think that, when he was facing competitors who'd had three years' more magical education than he had - when he was now facing tasks that not only sounded very dangerous, but which were to be performed in front of hundreds of people? He had talked about it, but he wasn't seriously considering it. He had only been joking…

"Balderdash," Thalia said to the gossiping portrait, pulling Harry out of his reverie.

The blast of noise that met Harry's ears when the portrait opened almost knocked him backward. Next thing he knew, he was being wrenched inside the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, and was facing the whole of Gryffindor House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling.

"You should've told us you'd entered!" bellowed Fred; he looked half annoyed, half deeply impressed.

"How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!" roared George.

"I didn't," Harry said. "I don't know how -"

But Angelina had now swooped down upon him; "Oh if it couldn't be me, at least it's a Gryffindor -"

"You'll be able to pay back Diggory for that last Quidditch match, Harry!" shrieked Katie Bell, another of the Gryffindor Chasers.

"We've got food, Harry, come and have some -"

"I'm not hungry, I had enough at the feast -"

The three other champions slipped upstairs without anyone noticing. As soon as Percy stepped into the dorm, Clarisse had him in a headlock as was knuckle-sandwiching him.

"Punk. How the Hades did you end up being picked? I thought you were called Seaweed Brain for a reason." Clarisse growled before letting Percy go. He didn't feel anything because of his curse, but it still wasn't fun being stuck under Clarisse's armpits. Let's just say, she needed more deodorant.

"Well, seeing as his dad reserved the second task for him especially, it has to do with water. And you suck at swimming Clarisse, so be grateful." Annabeth told her, amused.

She walked up to her boyfriend and murmured, "Congrats, Seaweed Brain," and kissed him full on the lips. They could hear gagging in the background but ignored it, only pulling back when they felt like it.

"Hey guys! We got this! Look!" Travis and Connor burst into the room, their arms full of stolen food and drinks from downstairs, not that they would notice. But what someone might notice was a wand. They had taken another wand. They found it amusing, the way the wizards would panic so wildly when they couldn't find their wand. They still hadn't been discovered because they would return the wand after an hour or so, and everyone would laugh at the poor person's forgetfulness. True sadists, they were.

"Travis, Connor, I thought I told you not to take wands anymore. They're important to these people," Annabeth sighed but she knew it was useless, "who did you take it from this time?"

Grinning manically, the Stoll brothers replied, "That so called redhead best-friend of Harry Potter."

"So-called? Why so-called?"

"On the way up we heard him talking to everyone about how-"

"-Harry managed to get his name in-"

"-even though he should have been defending Harry and all that.

"I feel kinda sorry for him."

"He was probably counting on him to believe him-"

"-and was on his way up to talk to him just now."

"And now we don't feel like giving the wand back to him." Travis and Connor chorused together in the way only they could accomplish, finishing the last sentence in unison.

Travis and Connor cringed a little, expecting Annabeth to scold them and go and apologise that minuted. What they didn't expect was for her to agree with him. All the others looked angry. Whether Harry was on the right side or the wrong, a true friend would have stuck up for him in a situation like this, not agree with everyone's accusations.

"Good. Keep the wand for a while. He deserves it. Chris would have done the same thing." Clarisse nodded in approval. Chris, her boyfriend, was also a son of Hermes. She would never admit that she missed him but she had slipped up. From that sentence every else knew she was missing him.

"Aww is itty bitty Clarissey missing her dear darling Chrissy wissy?" Lou Ellen teased in her mocking baby voice as everyone laughed.

Clarisse blushed slightly and growled, "Oh Ellen, you are so _dead_." And with that, the mini wrestling matches began and continued throughout the night.

* * *

**There you go:) Sorry for the extra day wait. I have _another_ idea for a story but it was a PJO and Inheritance one. I always get too many ideas then drop them halfway...which is bad. **

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it was actually really boring and nothing happens. Reviews would be appreciated:D**

**AlleyKat2134**


	7. Fighting a big fugly thing

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING BUT MY OWN IDEAS (nuh-duh) **

* * *

**Chapter 7**

"Come on, you gotta move faster. Go again." Percy commanded.

"Really? Again? The Task is in - what? - 2 hours and you want me to spend all my energy in the training? Can't I just rest for a while?" Thalia whined, regretting making Percy her trainer for the 1000th time. He may be a bit of a goof ball and a definite Seaweed Brain when he wasn't fighting, but when he was, he was seriously hard core.

"No. You gotta be ready. You-" Percy was about to go on but Thalia was saved by Annabeth.

"Percy, give her a break. She's ready enough. Whatever thing she has to fight doesn't stand a chance. Let her relax for a while and get her some ambrosia. She looks ready to drop dead on her feet."

Percy looked reluctant but sighed and agreed. Thalia just barely restrained herself from kissing Annabeth and rushed to her bathroom to take a steaming hot shower. Under the hot stream of water, Thalia gradually relaxed her aching muscles and just stood there for half an hour. When she got out she hung out with her 'gang', as she had heard someone call them earlier, until just before noon. On the outside, she looked to be the epitome of calm and cool, but on the inside her nerves stomach were doing little somersaults and backflips.

It was at lunch when the nerves really hit. Professor McGonagall rushed over to Thalia. Lots of people were watching.

"Miss Grace," McGonagall paused when she saw the young demigod glare intensely up at her, "the champions have to come down to the grounds now…You have to get ready for the first task."

Thalia only nodded stiffly before placing her fork down on her plate slowly. She suddenly wished she hadn't eaten so much for lunch, as her stomach was threatening to throw it all up now. She didn't let any of this show on her face though.

"Good luck, Thals," Annabeth whispered.

"You'll do just fine if you remember what we did in practice." Percy added, a lot more serious and stern than normal. That only unsettled Thalia more.

"Go kick some stick-waving butt for us."

"Good luck!"

"Do your best!"

'Yeah' was all Thalia said before she gave them all a smile. Well, tried to give them all a smile. It probably looked more like a grimace.

She turned and quickly followed the Professor out of the Great Hall, trailing alongside both the Professor and Harry. She looked at him, trying to gauge his emotions. They were written on his face as plain as day. He was nervous, scared and looked a little…resigned? As if he knew what was coming and had already decided he would have to face it anyway, as much as he didn't want to.

McGonagall was muttering soothing words into his ear, which Thalia could hear as clear as day with her hearing.

"Now, don't panic," she was saying, "just keep a cool head...We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand...The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you...Are you all right?"

"Yes," Thalia heard Harry say in a detached voice, "Yes, I'm fine."

As they walked, Thalia caught a glimpse of the cages the dragons were kept in. She wasn't concerned with those. What she _was _concerned about was what monster she would have to face. If she got a drakon or something like that…she shivered.

From then on Thalia pretty much tuned it all out and focused on Percy's drills.

Thalia was brought back to reality as she and Harry entered the champion's tent. She noted that Fleur didn't look as calm and collected as usual. In fact she looked like she was trying to create a river of sweat. Viktor looked grumpier than usual (how he managed to do that, she had no idea) and Cedric was trying to create a trench in the tent, if the speed of his pacing was anything to go by.

"Ah, good-o! They're here." Bagman exclaimed happily. 'Come in and make yourselves home!"

Bagman looked like he was going to start bouncing off the walls soon. He looked very out-of-place amongst the pale, nervous competitors. Thalia tried not to look too nervous, but she was almost 100% sure that she was failing.

"Well, now we're all here - time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" - he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them - "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different - err - varieties, you see." –At this the four wizards looked slightly nauseous. - "And I have to tell you something else too...ah, yes...your task is to collect the golden egg!"

They all nodded in understanding. Thalia was still waiting for the overweight man to address her, which he did.

"As for you, special lady," Bagman seemed to smile even wider, if it was possible, "this bag" – he waved a small black sack in her face – "contains your potential obstacles. You will fight whichever you pick out. But I think you may have to go last. According to your small friend, it may take him a while to summon some of the creatures in the bag."

Small friend? Thalia thought for a while. _Oh right. Nico. He must be summoning whatever monster is in there, being the son of Hades. Damn._

Bagman shoved the purple sack under Fleur's face with a 'Ladies first' as soon as the stands began to fill up. She put her shaking hand into the bag and pulled up small green thing with a small number two sign around its neck. She looked slightly intimidated but showed no outwards signs of surprise.

'_So, they already knew, did they? Why am I not surprised that they cheated?'_ Thalia thought to herself, shaking her head a little.

One by one the wizards reached their hands in and pulled out a dragon with a number from one to four on its side. Thalia could tell straight away that Harry had drawn the short straw. His dragon looked vicious, but not unmanageable…at least to her.

Now it was Thalia's turn. She tried hard to keep her hands from shaking as she reached into the small black bag and only just succeeded. She reached in and felt something sharp prick her palm and her hand automatically clamped around it, pulling it out. As soon as she did, she wished she had just let it go and chosen something else. Sitting in her hand was a mini model of the hydra.

Fleur gasped at the thing that as sitting in Thalia's hand and looked back at her Welsh green, suddenly feeling not so intimidated by the slimy, green creature she was going to face. Thalia had it so much worse. Harry's face showed sympathy, even though he didn't know what the thing actually was. It looked scary enough, though.

Thalia moaned. Out of all the things she could have pulled out, it had to be a thing that didn't die when its head was cut off, like a normal monster. Curse the Fates. She took a deep, calming breath before she looked ferociously at Bagman, whose smile seemed to have slipped somewhat.

"W-Well, there you are!" stuttered Bagman, before regaining his composure. "You have each pulled out the creature you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now...Harry...could I have a quick word? Outside?"

As the remaining four waited for Harry to come back, Cedric and Fleur crowded up to her.

"What _is_ that thing?" Cedric asked, in awe. The girl was supposed to fight that five headed animal? He felt his respect level for her rise a little, not that it was low in the first place.

"A hydra," Thalia replied in a calm, if not slightly snappish voice.

"Hydra? What can eet do?" Fleur slurred in bad English.

"Oh nothing, really. Just spit acid, breathe fire and regrow two heads once one is cut off." Thalia replied, sarcastic and annoyed. She hated French accents. They gave her a massive headache.

Cedric and Fleur stared at her looking very intimidated and frightened for her. Even Viktor's eyebrows were raised slightly in concern. He wouldn't be surprised if she died from this.

"What are you going to do about it then? You can't do magic." Cedric quizzed. Thalia scoffed. Magic. These people relied on it way too much. They waved sticks around, thinking they were all powerful and not gaining a shred of physical strength. But what would happen if they were disarmed, or if their wands were taken of broken somehow? They were as defenceless as a newborn baby.

"I'll just fight it with my own hands then. Who said I needed your hocus pocus?" Thalia snapped, effectively ending the conversation.

A whistle blew somewhere and Harry stumbled back into the tent with a confused expression on his face. Cedric walked to the entrance of the tent look slightly green. Thalia sincerely hoped that he didn't throw up somewhere in the stadium. She didn't exactly want to trip over in a pile of sick as she was fighting a monster out for her life.

It was worse than anyone expected, sitting and listening. The crowd screamed...yelled...gasped like a single many-headed entity, as the three legitimate wizard champions stepped into the stadium to face their model's like sized counterpart. And Bagman's commentary made everything much, much worse...Gruesome images filled Thalia's mind as she listened: "Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow"... "He's taking risks, this one!"..."Clever move - pity it didn't work!"… "Oh I'm not sure that was wise!" they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. "Oh...nearly! Careful now...good lord, I thought she'd had it then!"

And so the comments continued. She listened especially hard to Harry's .He seemed to be doing something quite impressive, if the comments were anything to go by ("Great Scott, he can fly!") but she just wanted him to hurry up. She wanted this over and done with.

Finally, it was her turn. She took a deep breath and strode out of tent with her mace canister, bow and arrow and shield. The game plan she had made in her spare time suddenly disappeared.

'_Ok, time to improvise_' she thought to herself as a gigantic shadow built itself up in the middle of the stadium. It slowly solidified to form the great, terrifying hydra. Wizards screamed in terror and she could see Chiron rise slightly from his place with the judges in concern. She took a deep breath and tried to smile – without much success – at her fellow campers before turning back to the great ugly multi-headed lizard thing before her.

The monster roared as it finally finished forming, waving its head around wildly before finally focussing on Thalia. She stared the many headed lizard down. The tension in the stadium was almost tangible as the great yellow eyes of the hydra's middle head stared into the piecing blue of the daughter of Zeus.

The tense silence was broken when it attacked, thrashing its tail haphazardly and making a sharp jab with the head furthest to the right, trying to damage her dominant hand before she had an opportunity to retaliate. Thalia ducked and rolled as the great lump of meat struck out at her again and again. She didn't notice the screams or the gasps, or the anxious looks of her peers and her mentor. Her mind was concentrating solely on the Greek nightmare in front of her.

Soon, she became sick of being on the defence. Her style was more offensive. She liked to be able to stand tall and shoot an arrow into the enemy's eye or mouth. They were the primary weaknesses in a monster. So that was what she did. She held her mace canister at the ready and tapped her bracelet. Aegis spun into existence on her arm. The hydra, reacting on instinct, recoiled for a split second, but it was enough for her. Quick as lightning – no pun intended – she extended the mace canister into her spear and sent a bolt of electricity at the hydra's middle head, right between the eyes.

The monster roared in pain and swung its heads blindly. This was all Thalia needed. Pulling her Hunter's bow, she shot arrow after arrow, aiming for the ten eyes – and by default, ten weaknesses – the hydra had the misfortune of having.

The hydra, now with new and improved silver arrows sticking out of its eyes, thrashed wildly. It did not, however, dissolve into gold dust, as Thalia had hoped. She would have to defeat the old school way then. Cut off the heads then burn the stumps. She had her knives, but what could she burn the stumps with? She almost hit herself in the head at such a stupid question – which would have made her look very stupid. Lightning could burn just as easily as it could electrocute.

She pulled one of her knives out of her boots and gripped it tightly and extended her spear. She tried to get close enough to cut its head off – which would mean basically climbing onto the hydra's neck – but was constantly forced back by wild movements of the hydra.

'_Stuff it,' _Thalia thought, tucking her knife away, '_I'll just shock it to death right now.'_

At this, she raised her spear high above her head and aimed it at the dragon. The smell of ozone filled the air as the lightning charged, before being released in several powerful bolts in a blinding light.

The hydra crashed to the ground unconscious and smoking. The smell of burnt flesh spread sickeningly through the arena. Thalia frowned. That should have killed the thing, but it was showing no signs of turning into gold dust anytime soon. Her daughter-of-Zeus skills had become rusty.

'_I'll train them up later.' _She promised herself as she strode over to the nest of eggs at plucked the golden one out. The crowd was roaring, the demigods managing to be louder than all the other wizarding schools. Bagman was shouting something about the power of the gods and other bits of nonsensical rubbish about the powers of demigods, which she totally disregarded. She smiled. All this attention was going to go to her head soon.

She was quickly whisked away and into the healing tent to be treated.A thoroughly annoyed and harassed-looking Madame Pomfrey rushed over to her but Thalia waved her away. The woman wouldn't leave though, especially after seeing a rather large gash running from Thalia's left elbow to her palm. It was still dripping blood. Thalia hadn't even noticed it until she pointed it out.

"I can take care of myself. It's just a few scratches. I've got my own thing that can heal it, don't worry." she protested.

"I don't care. It is my job as the school nurse to heal any injuries you have." The matron argued back.

"Just let me do it myself, for Zeus's sake," she snapped, ignoring the rumble of thunder, indicating her father's displeasure at having his name used as a (sort of) curse, "You can watch me if you want."

And so, under Madame Pomfrey's sharp eye, Thalia pulled out a flattened cube of ambrosia and bit into it. Everyone present in the tent gawked as all of her wounds healed themselves, leaving smooth skin behind. Even the large gash on her left arm had completely closed up without a trace of a scar.

"Are you happy now?" Thalia snapped. The matron just nodded.

"Whoo-hoo! Dayum, Thals."

"That was so kick-ass!"

"The way you, like-"

"- shot all those bolts at it…"

"- even though it didn't die…"

"- but who cares!"

"That was awesome!"

"You did great!" The Stoll brothers whooped one after the other at top speed. Thalia didn't understand any of it. All it did was give her more of a headache.

"You alright, Thals? Did you eat that ambrosia? Not hurt anywhere are you?" Annabeth fussed over her like a mother hen.

"I'm fine, Annie. Give me a little breathing space, will ya?" Thalia laughed in response. She turned to Percy, who had stayed silent the whole time. She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, those two already said what I wanted to say so I saw no point. But what happened to the plan?" Percy said. Thalia smiled sheepishly and shrugged, earning herself an eye roll.

"Cedric did this thing where he did something to a rock on the ground – turned it into a dog. Would have been a good diversionary tactic if the dragon hadn't got bored of the Labrador halfway through. And that…whatever-her-name-was girl tried something really weird, I think she was trying to put it into a trance - well, that kind of worked too, it went all sleepy, but then it snored – can dragons snore? – and this great jet of flame shot out, and her skirt caught fire – she put it out with a bit of water out of her wand. And Krum hit it with some sort of spell right in the eye. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs - they took marks off for that, he wasn't supposed to do any damage to them. And Harry did some really cool flying. He flies so well, you'd think he was some unknown son of Zeus or something." Percy rambled before he froze, "Please, don't say that I jinxed it. Just pretend I didn't say that. Let's go see your score."

"It's out of ten." Annabeth muttered to Thalia. She nodded and turned back to Madame Maxime. A silver nine shot out of the end of her wand.

"Pretty good!" Travis – or was it Connor? – appraised over the applauding crowd, "Probably took a mark off the arm."

Mr Crouch shot another nine from his wand.

"You're beating Harry by one now. He's tied first…for now." Percy commented.

Next, Dumbledore. He put up a ten. The volume of the cheering rose, if it was possible. Technically, he shouldn't have given her a ten for her arm, but she wasn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth.

Bagman also raised a ten. There was no complaining from Thalia. If they wanted to give her tens then they should feel free to. She had no problem with it.

Now it was Chiron's turn. Being a 'muggle', he just raised a plain piece of cardboard with a big black eight on it. She wasn't too upset. She knew Chiron scored without bias and he looked at things more thoroughly than the other judges. Eight was a good score from him.

Finally it was Karkaroff's turn. He shot out a three. The uproar was deafening, but it wasn't one of approval.

"μπάσταρδος (Bastard)." Thalia muttered under her breath. That was considered quite mild compared to what the Stolls were currently hollering at Karkaroff. Even the Durmstrangs seemed to disapprove of their headmaster's scoring.

"He's just biased. He gave Harry a four and Krum a ten. Don't worry about him" Annabeth advised.

"Yeah just ignore him. More importantly, you came first! Congrats!" Percy cheered.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Thalia shrugged nonchalantly as she tried to keep the smile off her face.

She strolled back into the tent as Fleur, Cedric, Krum and Harry went to meet her. Harry, Krum and Cedric's respect levels had all risen astronomically and Fleur reminded herself never to get on Thalia's bad side.

"Good job Thalia." Cedric congratulated.

"Thanks," she smiled back. He was momentarily stunned. It was times like these that he realised how good looking she was – all the demigods were.

"Well done, all of you!" said Ludo Bagman, bouncing into the tent and looking as pleased as though he personally had just got past a dragon. "Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth - but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open...see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg - because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"

Thalia rejoined Percy, Annabeth and the Stolls tossing the egg carelessly at Percy with a 'Here's your egg. It's the clue for your task.' before walking back up to the castle.

She was momentarily hindered by Rita Skeeter, but that was easily enough handled when Nico joined them soon after, using his death glare – excuse the pun – on the reporter. She scurried away rather quickly after a glance at the infamous glare.

Laughing, Thalia set off back to the castle with her friends.

* * *

**I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in a while! School was being a b**** and I got sick TWICE in ONE MONTH. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? Sigh~ My luck is just going doooooowwwwwwwwnnnnnn (if there was a down button on the keyboard then i would have used that...but i can't find one==') Sorrrryyyyyyyyy guys. But just a heads up, i might not be uploading in the next week. Definitely after next week though coz that's when school ends and the holidays start!:D **

**So I'll see you guys again soon but no promises. I don't make promises unless I can keep them. **

**AlleyKat2134 out~**


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